Although most smartphones and dedicated music players can handle MP4s no sweat, it’s often far easier to convert the MP4 files to MP3 to lighten their footprint and grant the audio greater versatility. Luckily, there is an abundance of free file converters you can download for your desktop or use directly within your favorite browser to essentially strip the sound from your favorite MP4 videos.

iFastime Video Converter Ultimate is a convenient little tool that allows you to extract MP4 audio and convert it directly into MP3, AAC, WMA, OGG or Wave format for use on a variety of mobile devices. The audio and video quality is exceptional, as is the lightning-quick conversion speed, and the resulting audio is supported on everything from Apple to Android devices and the diverse bulk of media players in between. Plus, the third-party utility houses basic options for trimming, cropping, layering various audio effects, adding watermarks, inserting subtitles within an easy-to-use interface.

2. USING CLOUDCONVERT (WEB-BASED) — FREE

CloudConvert may still be in the public beta phase, but the intuitive cloud-based service is a standalone option that requires little more than an Internet connection and your file. It’s entirely free, requires no additional software to run, and supports quick conversion between more than 100 formats — most notably MP4 to MP3 in our case. While the resulting audio quality is great, as is the conversion speed, a free account can only handle files less than 100 MB. However, it should suite your needs if you’re files aren’t overly large.